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Comment by martythemaniak | Hacker News Reader

The most incredible and depressing aspect of this is that it will have no impact whatsoever on policy makers, leaders or their supporters.

Can anyone imagine Paul Ryan or Cameron/Osborne coming out and admitting their policies are based on nothing more than gut feelings unsupported by anything? What about the countless pundits who've spent years squawking about austerity? The notion is laughable.

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Worse than that: the people who like a Ryan and his type actually respect gut feelings better than wonky data.

Well, we were all born into a political system based on the whims of politicians and bureaucrats...and not people like engineers who respect strong data.

Which is why I personally put more trust in the irrationality of markets and business over the irrationality of elected lawyers who gain power via rhetoric (and not production).

There is another study that explains these events:

http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conserv...

/sigh

Nah. The most depressing part for me is: challenging people's flawed beliefs reinforces those flawed beliefs. Creationism, Iraq had WMDs, anthropocentric climate change, etc.

I used to believe that if only we all just talked things out, we'd come to an agreement. No more.

Now I focus on better organizing. Rallying the troops.

With the computation, they still find 0-30 debt/GDP, 4.2% growth; 30-60, 3.1 %; 60-90, 3.2%,; 90-120, 2.4% and over 120, 1.6%

I wonder what you'll conclude with that data.

Why the ad hominem, bob13579?

Opinions about government spending have nothing to do with economic science, they are political decisions. There is a reason most deficit fear-mongers come from the right.

austerity -> cuts to social programs -> more poor people with less resources -> labor market who will work cheaper

>their policies are based on nothing more than gut feelings unsupported by anything?

What a charitable perspective.

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